That show is going to be either THE show people talk about or the biggest bomb ever to hit the small screen. No halfway measures for this one.

Shifting gears, I think we all knew Dexter was not going to get any happily-ever-after, either in Argentina or anywhere else. Alive and miserable for the rest of his life, he has a lot of atoning to do. It reminded me of the conclusion of The Shield, where Mackey (Michael Chiklis) was stripped of everything of value in his life and doomed to live out a pointless existence with no hope of change. That's pretty much where Dexter ended up too. It was fitting.

I suppose it's better for Harrison to be raised by one killer than by two. But Hannah killed for profit, or for her own benefit in some way, and Dexter went after murderers the law didn't catch. I never quite understood Dexter's trusting Hannah.

And yes, indeed, that was a Shield ending, but with one difference. Mackey didn't choose that life for himself, but Dexter did. He made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the two remaining people he loved.

I didn't like the ending. Big Time. Dexter working as a logger...where? The American Northwest? That's about as far from Miami as you can get and still stay in the country. But his reason for his sacrifice is a phony, something about how he brings death to everyone close to him. Maybe the Trinity Killer would have chosen some victim other than Rita if he hadn't known Dexter was on to him, but that's the only death Dexter can kind of blame himself for. Deb was shot in the line of duty. Evelyn didn't listen to Dexter's warning about her psychopath son. Lumen was unharmed. Dexter was even trying to help the boy Zach. Dexter had always handled everything thrown at him, but to fake his own death so he wouldn't jinx Hannah and Harrison? Completely out of character.

Yes, it seemed more like a knee-jerk reaction than something he'd thought through. I knew Deb was going to die from her wound, because Jennifer Carpenter let it slip in an interview she gave last week. But her death contributes to a loose string the finale left dangling. With both the Morgans gone, the police would surely have started looking for Harrison. They thought he would be leaving with Dexter, unaware that he'd already left with Hannah. Even if the cops didn't think of Harrison right away, Jamie (Batista's sister who took care of him) would start screaming "Where is he?" If they checked the airports, they'd find a boy Harrison's age had left with a woman who fit Hannah's description and they'd figure out what had happened. Argentina was undoubtedly chosen because it does not have an extradition treaty with the US, so Hannah is probably safe so long as she never leaves the country. Probably. But there was no time to crowd all that into a one-hour finale; what was needed was a quick and dramatic sacrifice to give us the final shot of the series -- Dexter miserable, alone, with only his martyrdom to keep him company.

Still, it was better than the Burn Notice finale, which was so bad it isn't worth talking about. James Spader is in his element in The Blacklist, but I found myself thinking of Hannibal and Clarice a couple of times. Joss Whedon's new series starts tonight, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., on ABC.

Blacklist wasn't the WOW! I was expecting. It's a sleek, good-looking show, and nobody does contemptuous amusement better than Spader. But in addition to the echo of Hannibal and Clarice, the hour had other things we've seen before -- a gun battle and an explosion (only 20 minutes into the first episode), an endangered child, which wire to cut. The premise has a built-in limit, since that list can't be endless. I do so hope that Red is not Liz's father, since that's what everyone must be expecting even after just one episode.